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THE    NEGRO    QUESTION 


DELIVERED   BEFORE  THE  WISCONSIN  BAR  ASSOCIATION 


BT 


MOORFIELD    STOREY 


JUNE  S7,  1918 


REPRINTED    BY    THE 

NATIONAL   ASSOCIATION  FOR   THE    ADVANCEMENT 
OF   COLORED    PEOPLE 

MOORKIELD  STOREY,  Preiident         JOHN  R.  SHILLADT,  Secretary 
70  FIFTH   AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 

Price,  10  Cents 


Reproduced  by 
DUOPAGE  PROCESS 

in  the 
U.S.  of  America 


Micro  Photo  Division 
Bell  &  Howell  Company 
Cleveland  12,  Ohio 


INTRODUCTION 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  on  "The  Negro  Question/* 
bj  Mr.  Moorfield  Storey,  which  appears  in  the  following 
pages,  the  Wisconsin  Bar  Association  appointed  a  special 
committee  to  consider  it  This  committee,  headed  by  Chief 
Justice  (of  the  Supreme  Court)  John  Bradley  Winslow,  sub 
mitted  the  following  report:  — 

Your  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  address  of  Hon. 
Moorfield  Storey,  with  a  view  to  having  an  expression  from 
this  Association  on  the  evils  which  were  so  graphically  out 
lined  in  the  address,  have  given  the  matter  such  attention  as 
the  brief  time  at  their  disposal  will  allow.  We  have  been 
deeply  impressed  by  Mr.  Storey's  address,  and  while  we  realize 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  formulate  an  adequate  program  of 
action  at  the  spur  of  the  moment,  we  are  able  nevertheless  to 
express,  and  do,  while  yet  under  the  spell  of  our  speaker's  elo 
quence,  hereby  express  our  unqualified  condemnation  of  mob 
violence  which  has  occurred  and  wherevt*r  it  has  occurred  in 
our  land,  towards  the  colored  race.  It  is  a  time  when  all  the 
civilized  world  is  profoundly  shocked  by  the  inhuman  treat 
ment  of  the  weak  and  suffering  by  the  strong  and  brutal  hand 
of  the  oppressors.  But  we  have  to-day  been  told  of  things  done 
in  our  own  midst  to  our  colored  fellow-citizens  that  are  no  less 
barbaric  than  the  heartrending  treatment  of  the  little  peoples 
of  the  world  by  their  oppressors.  We  shall  reap  the  whirlwind 
if  we  continue  to  sow  the  wind,  and  as  lawyers  and  judges 
who  are  sworn  to  uphold  and  administer  the  law  let  us  at 
once  pay  heed  to  the  solemn  warning  that  the  words  of  Mr. 
Storey  have  sounded  in  our  ears.  The  acts  of  violence  to  this 
unfortunate  race  tend  to  make  us  indifferent  to  acts  of  violence 
to  other  races  and  peoples.  The  fair  name  of  more  than  one 
American  community  within  recent  months  has  been  indelibly 
stained  by  these  outbursts  of  race  hatred  and  bigotry.  It  ia 
high  time  that  we,  the  lawyers  and  judges,  invoke  the  law  and 
suppress,  so  far  as  we  may,  the  rule  of  the  mob.  We  lawyers, 
therefore,  pledge  ourselves  to  uphold  and  inculcate  among  our 
fellow-citizens  respect  for  the  law,  and  respect  for  the  legal 
rights  of  all  races  of  all  members  of  our  own  community  while 
we  are  crying  out  against  the  wrongs  of  people  and  races  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We  ask,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  a 
place  be  made  on  the  program  of  our  meeting  next  year  for  a 
report  which  we  shall  then  endeavor  to  have  ready,  in  which 
we  shall  hope  to  give  some  adequate  expression  to  our  hatred 
of  that  lawless  disregard  of  the  political  and  social  rights  of 
the  colored  race,  which  has  long  <iisgraced  us  as  a  nation,  and 
suggest  methods  by  which  this  protest  may  be  made  more  effec 
tual  in  the  way  of  influencing  public  opinion  throughout  the 
country  on  the  subject. 


YSAflt 


tilt 


THE  NEGRO  QUESTION. 


There  are  in  this  country  to-day  from  ten  to  twelve 
millions  of  native  Americans  entitled  under  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  to  every  right 
that  any  American  citizen  enjoys  and  protected  against 
hostile  legislation  in  any  State  by  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment.  Yet  all  over  the  country  their  rights  are 
ignored  and  they  are  subjected  to  indignities  of  every 
kind,  simply  because  they  are  Negroes. 

The  Constitution  expressly  provides  that  the  right  of 
citizens  to  vote  "shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged 
...  on  account  of  race,  color  or  previous  con-\ 
dition  of  servitude."  Yet  in  many  States  this  pro 
vision  is  ejet  at  naught.  The  Negroes  have  felt  the 
murderous  violence  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  they  have 
seen  brutality  followed  by  fraud  when  elections  were 
carried  by  tissue-paper  ballots,  and  the  same  results 
accomplished  later  by  "grandfather  clauses"  and 
laws  intended  to  enable  election  officers  to  reject 
their  votes.  We  need  .not  enumerate  the  methods 
for  we  all  know  that  in  the  Southern  States 
the  Negro  vote  lias  been  and  is  suppressed.  This  is 
admitted  and  justified  by  the  Southern  people. 

Negroes  are  denied  the  protection  which  the  law  af 
fords  the  lives  and  property  of  other  citizens.  If  only 
charged  with  crime  or  even  misdemeanor,  they  are  at 
the  mercy  of  the  mob  and  may  be  killed  and  tortured 
with  absolute  impunity.  In  many  States  they  cannot 
obtain  justice  in  the  courts.  At  hotels,  restaurants  and 
theatres  they  are  not  admitted  or  are  given  poor  accom 
modation  In  the  public  parks  and  public  conveyances, 
even  in  the  public  offices  of  the  nation,  they  are  set  apart 


252 


INTRODUCTION 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  on  "The  Negro  Question/* 
bj  Mr.  Moorfield  Storey,  which  appears  in  the  following 
pages,  the  Wisconsin  Bar  Association  appointed  a  special 
committee  to  consider  it  This  committee,  headed  by  Chief 
Justice  (of  the  Supreme  Court)  John  Bradley  Winslow,  sub 
mitted  the  following  report:  — 

Your  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  address  of  Hon. 
Moorfield  Storey,  with  a  view  to  having  an  expression  from 
this  Association  on  the  evils  which  were  so  graphically  out 
lined  in  the  address,  have  given  the  matter  such  attention  as 
the  brief  time  at  their  disposal  will  allow.  We  have  been 
deeply  impressed  by  Mr.  Storey's  address,  and  while  we  realize 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  formulate  an  adequate  program  of 
action  at  the  spur  of  the  moment,  we  are  able  nevertheless  to 
express,  and  do,  while  yet  under  the  spell  of  our  speaker's  elo 
quence,  hereby  express  our  unqualified  condemnation  of  mob 
violence  which  has  occurred  and  wherevt*r  it  has  occurred  in 
our  land,  towards  the  colored  race.  It  is  a  time  when  all  the 
civilized  world  is  profoundly  shocked  by  the  inhuman  treat 
ment  of  the  weak  and  suffering  by  the  strong  and  brutal  hand 
of  the  oppressors.  But  we  have  to-day  been  told  of  things  done 
in  our  own  midst  to  our  colored  fellow-citizens  that  are  no  less 
barbaric  than  the  heartrending  treatment  of  the  little  peoples 
of  the  world  by  their  oppressors.  We  shall  reap  the  whirlwind 
if  we  continue  to  sow  the  wind,  and  as  lawyers  and  judges 
who  are  sworn  to  uphold  and  administer  the  law  let  us  at 
once  pay  heed  to  the  solemn  warning  that  the  words  of  Mr. 
Storey  have  sounded  in  our  ears.  The  acts  of  violence  to  this 
unfortunate  race  tend  to  make  us  indifferent  to  acts  of  violence 
to  other  races  and  peoples.  The  fair  name  of  more  than  one 
American  community  within  recent  months  has  been  indelibly 
stained  by  these  outbursts  of  race  hatred  and  bigotry.  It  is 
high  time  that  we,  the  lawyers  and  judges,  invoke  the  law  and 
suppress,  so  far  as  we  may,  the  rule  of  the  mob.  We  lawyers, 
therefore,  pledge  ourselves  to  uphold  and  inculcate  among  our 
fellow-citizens  respect  for  the  law,  and  respect  for  the  legal 
rights  of  all  races  of  all  members  of  our  own  community  while 
we  are  crying  out  against  the  wrongs  of  people  and  races  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We  ask,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  a 
place  be  made  on  the  program  of  our  meeting  next  year  for  a 
report  which  we  shall  then  endeavor  to  have  ready,  in  which 
we  shall  hope  to  give  some  adequate  expression  to  our  hatred 
of  that  lawless  disregard  of  the  political  and  social  rights  of 
the  colored  race,  which  has  long  disgraced  us  as  a  nation,  and 
suggest  methods  by  which  this  protest  may  be  made  more  effec 
tual  in  the  way  of  influencing  public  opinion  throughout  the 
country  on  the  subject. 


YSAfti 


ssr 

THE  NEGRO  QUESTION. 


There  are  in  this  country  to-day  from  ten  to  twelve 
millions  of  native  Americans  entitled  under  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  to  every  right 
that  any  American  citizen  enjoys  and  protected  against 
hostile  legislation  in  any  State  by  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment.  Yet  all  over  the  country  their  rights  are 
ignored  and  they  are  subjected  to  indignities  of  every 
kind,  simply  because  they  are  Negroes. 

The  Constitution  expressly  provides  that  the  right  of 
citizens  to  vote  "shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged 
...  on  account  of  race,  color  or  previous  con-\ 
dition  of  servitude."  Yet  in  many  States  this  pro 
vision  is  set  at  naught.  The  Negroes  have  felt  the 
murderous  violence  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  they  have 
seen  brutality  followed  by  fraud  when  elections  were 
carried  by  tissue-paper  ballots,  and  the  same  results 
accomplished  later  by  "grandfather  clauses"  and 
laws  intended  to  enable  election  officers  to  reject 
their  votes.  We  need  .not  enumerate  the  methods 
for  we  all  know  that  in  the  Southern  States 
the  Negro  vote  lias  been  and  is  suppressed.  This  is 
admitted  and  justified  by  the  Southern  people. 

Negroes  are  denied  the  protection  which  the  law  af 
fords  the  lives  and  property  of  other  citizens.  If  only 
charged  with  crime  or  even  misdemeanor,  they  are  at 
the  mercy  of  the  mob  and  may  be  killed  and  tortured 
with  absolute  impunity.  In  many  States  they  cannot 
obtain  justice  in  the  courts.  At  hotels,  restaurants  and 
theatres  they  are  not  admitted  or  are  given  poor  accom 
modation  In  the  public  parks  and  public  conveyances, 
even  in  the  public  offices  of  the  nation,  they  are  set  apart 


252 


. 

from  their  fellow-citizens.  The  districts  which  they 
occupy  in  cities  are  neglected  by  the  authorities, 
and  of  the  money  whfch  the  community  devotes  to  edu 
cation,  a  very  small  fraction  is  allotted  to  them,  so 
that  their  schoolhouses  and  their  teachers  are  grossly 
inadequate.  It  is  notorious  that  in  many  cities  they  are 
wretchedly  housed  and  charged  unreasonable  rents  for 
their  abodes.  /  Labor  unions  will  not  receive  them  as 
members,  and  as  non-union  men  they  find  it  hard  to  get 
employment.  If  in  spite  of  every  obstacle  they  gain 
an  education,  they  find  door  after  door  closed  to  them 
which  would  have  opened  to  receive  them  gladly  had 
their  skins  been  white.  The  deliberate  effort  is  made 
to  stamp  them  as  inferior,  to  keep  them  "hewers  ot 
wood  and  drawers  of  water,"  to  deny  them  that  oppor 
tunity  to  rise  which  America  offers  to  every  other  citi 
zen  or  emigrant  no  matter  how  ignorant  or  how  de 
graded.  These  are  the  unquestionable  facts,  and  they 
are  not  controverted. 

Let  me  give  you  some  testimony  from  the  South.  Says 
the  Atlanta  Constitution: — 

"We  must  be  fair  to  the  Negro.  There  is  no  use 
in  beating  about  the  bush.  We  have  not  shown  this 
fairness  in  the  past,  nor  are  we  showing  it  to-day, 
either  in  justice  before  the  laws,  in  facilities  af 
forded  for  education,  or  in  other  directions." 

Some  years  ago  a  Mississippi  lawyer  addressing  the 
Bar  Association  of  that  State  said : — 

"A  Negro  accused  of  a  crime  during  the  days  of 
slavery  was  dealt  with  more  justly  than  he  is  to 
day?  .  .  .  It  is  next  to  an  impossibility  to  con 
vict  even  upon  the  strongest  evidence  any  white 
man  of  a  crime  of  violence  upon  the  person  of  a 
Negro  .  .  .  and  the  converse  is  equally  true 
that  it  is  next  to  an  impossibility  to  acquit  a  Negro 
of  any  crime  of  violence  where  a  white  man  is  con 
cerned," 


and  well  did  he  add, 

"We  cannot  either  as  individuals,  as  a  country, 
as  a  State,  or  as  a  nation  continue  to  mete  out  one 
kind  of  criminal  justice  to  a  poor  man,  a  friendless 
man,  or  a  man  of  a  different  race,  and  another  kind 
of  justice  to  a  rich  man,  an  influential  man,  or  a 
man  of  our  qwn  race  without  reaping  the  conse 
quences." 

From  the  Vicksburg  Herald  come  these  words: — 

"The  Herald  looks  with  no  favor  upon  drafting 
Southern  Negroes  at  all,  believing  they  should  be 
.  exempt  in  toto  because  they  do  not  equally  'share 
in  the  benefits  of  government/  To  say  that  they 
do  is  to  take  issue  with  the  palpable  truth.  'Taxa 
tion  without  representation/  the  war-cry  of  the 
Revolutionary  wrong  against  Great  Britain,  was 
not  half  so  plain  a  wrong  as  requiring  military 
service  from  a  class  that  is  denied  suffrage  and 
which  lives  under  such  discriminations  of  inferi 
ority  as  the  'Jim  Crow'  law  and  inferior  school 
equipment  and  service." 

One  might  criticise  such  an  utterance  as  intended  to 
encourage  resistance  to  conscription  by  the  Negroes, 
or  might  imagine  that  the  writer  from  these  premises 
would  argue  against  the  "wrong"  which  he  recognizes. 
Alas,  no.  His  argument  is  that  the  wrong  must  be  made 
permanent  and  the  conscription  of  Negroes  abandoned 
because  it  makes  the  wrong  too  apparent.  He  says, 
"Drafting  Negroes  as  soldiers  is  a  gross  travesty  and 
contradiction  of  the  color-line  creed,"  and  rather  than 
abandon  that  creed  he  would  deprive  his  country  in 
this  terrible  crisis  of  all  the  soldiers  which  twelve  mill 
ions  of  people  are  ready  and  anxious  to  supply. 

If  we  ask  what  is  done  for  education,  the  report  of 
a  careful  investigation  published  by  the  Bureau  of 
Education  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  is  melan 
choly  reading.  It  gives  the  facts  as  to  the  16  Southern 
States,  the  District  of  Columbia  and  Missouri,  in  which 


the  population  contains  a  considerable  portion  of  Ne 
groes,  and  states  that  in  15  States  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  "for  which  salaries  by  race  could  be  obtained" 
the  figures  showed  an  expenditure  of  "$10.32  for  each 
white  child  and  ?2.89  for  each  colored  child."  The 
conditions  are  even  worse  than  these  figures  indicate, 
for,  as  the  report  states,  "the  per  capita  expenditure 
for  Negro  children  is  higher  in  the  border  States,  where 
the  proportion  of  colored  people  is  relatively  small  and 
the  proportion  for  colored  high  schools  is  better."  The 
more  numerous  the  Negroes  the  smaller  is  the  provision 
for  their  education.  A  table  in  the  report  shows  that 
in  the  counties  where  the  percentage  of  Negroes  in  the 
population  is  less  than  10  per  cent.,  the  per  capita  ex 
penditure  for  white  and  colored  is  nearly  equal.  It 
evidently  does  not  pay  to  maintain  separate  schools. 
Where,  however,  the  percentage  of  Negroes  is  between 
50  and  75  |>er  cent,  the  expenditure  for  the  whites  is 
512.53  per  capita  and  for  the  colored  J1.77,  while  where 
the  percentage  exceeds  75  per  cent,  the  expenditure  for 
the  whites  is  $22.22  and  for  the  Negroes  only  ?1.78  per 
capita. 

The  results  may  be  imagined,  and  we  cannot  be  sur 
prised  at  the  testimony  which  the  same  report  gives 
from  competent  witnesses.  I  quote: — 

"The  supervisor  of  white  elementary  rural  schools 
in  one  of  the  States  recently  wrote  concerning  the 
Negro  schools: — 

"  *I  never  visit  one  of  these  [Negro]  schools  with 
out  feeling  that  we  are  wasting  a  large  part  of  this 
money  and  are  neglecting  a  great  opportunity.  The 
Negro  sehoolhouses  are  miserable  beyond  all  de 
scription.  They  are  usually  without  comfort,  equip 
ment,  proper  lighting,  or  sanitation.  Nearly  all  of 
the  Negroes  of  school  age  in  the  district  are  crowded 
into  these  miserable  structures  during  the  short 
term  which  the  school  runs.  Most  of  the  teachers 
are  absolutely  untrained  and  have  been  given  cer- 


tificates  by  the  county  board,  not  because  they  have 
passed  the  examination,  but  because  it  is  necessary 
to  have  some  kind  of  a  Negro  teacher.  Among  the 
Negro  rural  schools  which  I  have  visited,  I  have 
found  only  one  in  which  the  highest  class  knew 
the  multiplication  table/ 

"A  State  superintendent  writes: — 

"  'There  has  never  been  any  serious  attempt  in 
this  State  to  oiYer  adequate  educational  facilities 
for  the  colored  race.  The  average  length  of  the 
term  for  the  State  is  only  four  months;  practically 
all  of  the  schools  are  taught  in  dilapidated  churches, 
which,  of  course,  are  not  equipped  with  suitable 
desks,  blackboards,  and  the  other  essentials  of  a 
school ;  practically  all  of  the  teachers  are  incompe 
tent,  possessing  little  or  no  education  and  having 
had  no  professional  training  whatever,  except  a 
few  weeks  obtained  in  the  summer  schools;  the 
schools  are  generally  overcrowded,  some  of  them 
having  as  many  as  100  students  to  the  teacher; 
no  attempt  is  made  to  do  more  than  teach  the  chil 
dren  to  read,  write,  and  figure,  and  these  subjects 
are  learned  very  imperfectly.' ' 

But  more  dangerous  and  more  wicked  than  neglect 
is  the  barbarous  cruelty  of  lynching.  I  need  not  revive 
the  figures  of  the  past.  What  has  happened  within  a 
year  is  enough.  Since  the  United  States  entered  the  war 
a  , careful  investigation  shows  that  219  Negro  men, 
women  and  children  have  been  killed  and  lynched  by 
mobs  in  addition  to  two  white^  men,  one  of  these  being 
Robert  Prager.  Four  [Negroes  were  lynched  in  Ala 
bama,  2  in  Arkansas,  1  in  Florida,  7  in  Georgia,  1  in 
Kentucky,  11  in  Louisiana,  3  in  Mississippi,  1  in  North 
Carolina,  2  in  Oklahoma,  2  in  South  Carolina,  5  in 
Tennessee,  9  in  Texas,  3  in  Virginia,  1  in  West  Virginia, 
and  1  in  Wyoming.  In  addition  to  these  cases  175  men. 
women  and  children  were  tortured,  burned  and  killed 
at  East  St.  Louis  in  July,  1917,  and  three  Negroes  were 
killed  by  a  mob  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  in  September, 


8 

1917.*  Since  1885  between  3,000  and  4,000  cases  of  lynch 
ing  have  been  reported,  and  in  only  three  instances  does 
investigation  show  that  any  lyncher  was  punished.  In 
two  of  these  cases  the  victim  of  the  mob  was  white.  In 
the  third  case,  that  of  a  particularly  atrocious  murder 
of  a  Tennessee  farmer  and  his  two  daughters,  the  lynch- 
ers  were  two  young  and  friendless  white  boys. 

That  you  may  realize  what  lynching  is,  let  me  give 
you  instances.  Dyersburg  in  Tennessee  is  a  prosperous 
town  of  some  7,500  people,  the  county  seat  and  a  repre 
sentative  community  of  the  better  class.  In  this  town 
on  Sunday  morning,  December  2,  in  a  lot  the  corner 
of  which  adjoins  the  public  square,  and  which  is  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  two  churches  and  the  residences  of 
several  ministers,  as  well  as  of  the  mayor  of  the  town, 
while  the  people  of  Dyersburg  surrounded  the  scene, 
watched  all  that  occurred  and  approved,  since  no 
protest  was  made,  a  Negro  was  thus  dealt  with : — 

"The  Negro  was  seated  on  the  ground  and  a 
buggy-axle  driven  into  the  ground  between  his  legs. 
His  feet  were  chained  together,  with  logging  chains, 
and  he  was  tied  with  wire.  A  tire  was  built.  Pokers 
and  flat-irons  were  procured  and  heated  in  the  fire. 
It  was  thirty  minutes  before  they  were  red-hot. 

"His  self-appointed  executors  burned  his  eyeballs 
with  red-hot  irons.  When  he  opened  his  mouth 
to  cry  for  mercy  a  red-hot  poker  was  rammed  dofvn 
his  gullet.  Red-hot  irons  were  placed  on  his  feet, 
back  and  body,  until  a  hideous  stench  of  burning 
human  flesh  tilled  the  Sabbath  air  of  Dyersburg. 

"Thousands  of  people  witnessed  this  scene.  They 
had  to  be  pushed  back  from  the  stake  to  which  the 
Negro  was  chained.  Koof-tops,  second-story  win 
dows  and  porch-tops  were  filled  with  spectators. 

•  Since  this  address  was  written,  and  between  May  15  and  June  2  last. 
three  colored  men  and  one  wouiau  were  lynched  in  Georgia  for  alleged  com 
plicity  in  a  murder,  one  has  been  lynched  and  his  body  burned  in  Tennessee, 
the  whole  colored  population  of  the  town  being  forced  to  witness  the  burning, 
and  a  mother  and  her  five  sons  have  been  shot  to  death  in  Texas  on  account 
of  an  altercation  between  one  of  them  and  a  white  man.  the  woman's  daugh 
ter  also  being  fatally  wounded. 


Children  were  lifted  to  shoulders,  that  they  might 
behold  the  agony  of  the  victim. 

"A  little  distance  away,  in  the  public  square, 
the  best  citizens  of  the  county  supported  the  burn 
ing  and  torturing  with  their  near-by  presence." 

The  Memphis  Ncws-Schnitnr  thus  describes  the  scene: 

"Not  a  domino  hid  a  face.  Every  one  was  un 
masked.  Leaders  were  designated  and  assigned 
their  parts.  Long  before  the  mob  reached  the  city 
the  public  square  was  choked  with  humanity.  All 
waited  patiently.  Women,  with  babies,  made  them 
selves  comfortable. 

"At  last  the  irons  were  hot. 

"A  red  streak  shot  out;  a  poker  in  a  brawny 
hand  was  boring  out  one  of  the  Negro's  eyes.  The 
Negro  bore  the  ordeal  with  courage,  only  low  moans 
escaping  him.  Another  poker  was  working  like 
an  auger  on  the  other  orbit. 

"Swish.  Once,  twice,  three  times  a  red  hot  iron 
dug  gaping  places  in  Lation  Scott's  back  and  sides. 

"  'Fetch  a  hotter  one/  somebody  said.  The  ex 
ecution  went  on. 

"Now  some  one  had  another  poker — jabbing  its 
fiery  point  into  the  ribs  of  the  doomed  black. 

"Then  rubbish  was  piled  high  about  the  agonized 
body,  squirming  beneath  its  load. 

"More  and  more  wood  and  rubbish  were  fed  the 
fire,  but  at  three  o'clock  Lation  Scott  was  not  dead. 
Life  finally  fled  at  four  o'clock. 

"Women  scarcely  changed  countenance  as  the 
Negro's  back  was  ironed  with  the  hot  brands.  Even 
the  executioners  maintained  their  poise  in  the  face 
of  bloody  creases  left  by  the  irons, — irons  which 
some  housewife  had  been  using. 

"Three  and  a  half  hours  were  required  to  com 
plete  the  execution." 

Vie  cannot  but  wonder  whether  on  thdt  Sunday  morn 
ing,  in  the  shadow  of  the  churches,  any  of  the  respectable 
church-going  citizens  of  Dyersburg  who  witnessed  these 
horrors  remembered  the  immortal  words,  "Inasmuch  as 


10 

ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  these  least, 
ye  did  it  unto  me." 

At  Estill  Springs  in  Tennessee  a  Negro  charged  with 
killing  two  white  men  was  in  like  manner  tortured  and 
burned  alive.  The  Chattanooga  Times  thus  describes 
what  occurred: — 

"Jim  Mcllherron,  the  Negro  who  shot  and  killed 
Pierce  Rodgcrs  and  Jesse  Tigert,  two  white  men, 
at  Estill  Springs,  last  Friday,  and  wounded  Frank 
Tigert,  was  tortured  with  a  red-hot  crowbar  and 
then  burned  to  death  here  to-night  at  7.40  by  twelve 
masked  men.  A  crowd  of  approximately  2,000  per 
sons,  among  whom  were  women  and  children,  wit 
nessed  the  burning. 

"Mcllherron,  who  was  badly  wounded  and  unable 
to  walk,  was  carried  to  the  scene  of  the  murder, 
where  preparation  for  a  funeral  pyre  was  begun. 

"The  captors  proceeded  to  a  spot  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  railroad  station  and  prepared 
the  death  fire.  The  crowd  followed  and  remained 
throughout  the  horrible  proceedings.  The  Negro 
was  led  to  a  hickory  tree,  to  which  they  chained  him. 
After  securing  him  to  the  tree  a  fire  was  laid.  A 
short  distance  away  another  fire  was  kindled,  and 
into  it  was  put  an  iron  bar  to  heat. 

"When  the  bar  became  red  hot  a  member  of  the 
mob  jabbed  it  toward  the  Negro's  body.  Crazed 
with  fright,  the  black  grabbed  hold  of  it,  and  as  it 
was  pulled  through  his  hands  the  atmosphere  was 
filled  with  the  odor  of  burning  flesh.  This  was 
the  first  time  the  murderer  gave  evidence  of  his 
will  being  broken.  Scream  after  scream  rent  the 
air.  As  the  hot  iron  was  applied  to  various  parts 
of  his  body  his  yells  and  cries  for  mercy  could  be 
heard  in  the  town. 

"After  torturing  the  Negro  several  minutes  one 
of  the  masked  men  poured  coal  oil  on  his  feet  and 
trousers  and  applied  a  match  to  the  pyre.  As  the 
flames  rose,  enveloping  the  black's  body,  he  begged 
that  he  be  shot.  Yells  of  derision  greeted  his  re 
quest.  The  angry  flames  consumed  his  clothing 
and  little  blue  blazes  shot  upward  from  his  burning 
hair  before  he  lost  consciousness." 


11 

The  example  to  these  lynchers  was  set  in  Memphis, 
and  I  quote  the  following  statement  from  Rt.  Rev. 
Thomas  F.  Gailor,  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Tennessee,  a 
Southern  white  man,  who  wrote  in  the  Nashville 
Banner: — 

"I  realize  that  it  is  futile  to  attempt  by  any  writ 
ten  word  to  stem  the  tide  of  what  seems  to  be  the 
popular  will ;  but  a  man  can,  at  least,  declare  his 
abhorrence  of  such  atrocities. 

"This  kind  of  lynching  seems  to  be  becoming;  epi 
demic  in  our  State.  About  two  years  ago  a  Negro 
from  Fayette  County  was  lynched  most  barbarously 
near  Memphis,  and  parts  of  his  body,  according  to 
the  newspapers,  carried  away  as  souvenirs.  Many 
citizens  of  Memphis  protested,  but  they  were  ig 
nored.  Last  winter  a  Negro  man  near  Memphis 
was  burned  at  the  stake,  gasoline  was  poured  over 
his  body,  and  his  head  was  cut  off  and  taken  through 
the  city  streets  as  a  trophy.  Last  fall  a  Negro  was 
burned  to  death  in  Dyersburg,  and  thousands  of 
white  people  stood  by  and  gloated  over  his  agonies. 
And  now,  at  Estill  Springs,  we  have  another  burn 
ing,  where  the  white  men  in  charge  first  tortured 
the  miserable  creature  with  a  red-hot  iron,  'to 
break  his  will,'  while  the  victim,  already  shot  nearly 
to  death,  with  one  eye  hanging  out,  screamed  for 
mercy,  and  a  thousand  white  men,  with  hundreds 
of  women  and  children,  looked  on  and  were  not 
ashamed." 

These  details  are  revolting,  and  you  may  ask  me  why 
I  harrow  you  by  reciting  them.  Because  unless  the 
hideous  horror  of  the  disease  is  brought  home  to  you, 
you  will  not  rouse  yourselves  to  find  the  remedy. 

The  massacre  of  St.  Louis  is  fresh  in  your  memories, 
and  its  horrors  are  well  known  at  the  South,  as  appears 
by  the  article  in  the  Greenville  News,  published  at 
Greenville,  South  Carolina,  of  all  days  on  July  4, 
1917,  under  the  title  "The  Banner  Lynching": — 


12 

"Twenty  Negroes  have  been  killed,  three  hundred 
are  injured,  and  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
of  their  homes  have  been  burned.  This  was  the 
work  of  a  mob  that  showed  no  Negro  mercy,  that 
did  not  stop  to  discriminate  between  the  good  and 
the  bad.  All  that  could  be  caught  were^  beaten,  if 
not  slain,  and  battered  into  pulp.  White  women 
caught  Negro  women  and  tore  their  clothes  off,  beat 
them  and  ran  them  away.  As  the  Negroes  ran  out 
of  their  burning  houses,  fired  by  the  mob,  they  were 
shot  down  like  dogs.  One  thousand  five  hundred 
soldiers  do  not  suffice  to  control  the  situation.  Hun 
dreds  of  Negroes,  many  of  them  carrying  babies,  are 
fleeing  from  their  former  homes.  Five  hundred  of 
the  mob  are  in  jail. 

"The  Memphis  burning  of  a  Negro  at  the  stake, 
the  Abbeville  lynching  of  Crawford,  seem  insignifi 
cant  when  compared  with  the  East  St.  Louis  sham 
bles,  when  the  streets  ran  red  with  Negro  blood, 
when  Negro  women,  innocent  and  unoffending,  were 
brutally  beaten,  when  Negro  men  were  shot  down 
for  competing  with  white  labor." 

Pages  could  be  filled  with  the  agonizing  details  of 
these  and  similar  atrocities.  The  governors  of  Tennes 
see,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  have  been  appealed  to, 
but  have  refused  to  act,  pleading  a  lack  of  power.  In 
striking  contrast  has  been  the  action  taken  by  the  Gov 
ernors  of  Kentucky  and  both  Carol inas,  but  in  spite  of 
their  efforts  the  men  who  commit  these  crimes  go  free 
like  the  men  who  confessed  that  they  murdered  Prager. 
Coatesville  in  Pennsylvania,  Springfield  in  Illinois  the 
home  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  have  witnessed  scenes 
scarcely  less  atrocious,  and,  though  the  men  who  com 
mitted  these  hideous  crimes  were  well  known  and  were 
in  some  cases  indicted,  not  one  was  ever  punished.  The 
juries  refused  to  convict. 

It  is  conceivable  that  in  a  country  as  large  as  ours 
ruffians  might  be  found  so  degraded  and  ferocious  as  to 
commit  these  horrible  crimes,  but  that  no  attempt  should 


13 

be  made  to  punish  them,  that  respectable  men  and 
women  should  look  on  and  let  their  children  witness 
such  horrors  would  be  inconceivable  were  it  not  clearly 
true  The  great  body  of  the  community  approves  or 
lynching  would  stop/  Men  justify  their  treatment  of 
the  Negroes  by  saying  that  it  is  necessary  "to  preserve 
their  civilization,"  while  the  editor  of  the  Little  Rock 
Daily  News  recently  wrote  that  he  considered  white 
men  "just  a  little  lower  than  the  angels"  and  the  Negro 
"just  a  little  higher  than  the  brutes."  What  sort  of 
"civilization"  do  sucli  actions  reveal,  and  who  are  the 
angels  whom  these  white  men  so  closely  resemble? 

The  excuse  that  such  things  are  done  to  prevent  crimes 
against  women  is  without  foundation.  Let  me  answer 
it  by  Southern  testimony.  Dr.  W.  C.  Scroggs  of  the 
Louisiana  State  University  says:  "Not  only  is  lynching 
no  preventive  of  crimes  against  women,  but  statistics 
prove  that  only  one  time  in  four  are  such  crimes  the 
cause  of  lynching.  In  1915  only  16  per  cent,  of  the 
persons  lynched  were  charged  with  crimes  against  worn- 
anhood."  I  have  emphasized  the  word  "charged"  for  a 
charge  is  easily  made  and  often  falsely,  as  figures 
abundantly  prove.  In  court  the  man  who  is  charged 
is  presumed  to  be  innocent.  To  the  mob  the  charge  is 

proof  of  guilt. 

The    figures     for     1917     abundantly     confirm     Dr. 

Scroggs : — 

"Rape  and  attempted  rape g 

Murder 4 

Assault  and  wounding 6 

Robbery   and   theft 

White   women    (intimacy,   annoying,   striking,   entering  room,  ^ 

Race  prejudice  '(refusing  to  give  up  farm,  accidental  killing) . .       2 

Opposing    draft 

Resisting  arrest ^ 4 

Unreported    ....... .\ 

Vagrancy,  disputing  J 17g 

Killed  by  mobs 

Total 222 


14 

No  saner  words  on  the  subject  haye  been  uttered  than 
these  which  I  quote  from  Henry  Watterson: — 

"Lynching  should  not  be  misconstrued.  It  is  not 
an  effort  to  punish  crime.  It  is  a  sport  which  has 
as  its  excuse  the  fact  that  a  crime,  of  greater  or  less 
gravity,  has  been  committed  or  is  alleged,  A  lynch 
ing  party  rarely  is  made  up  of  citizens  indignant 
at  the  law's  delays  or  failures.  It  often  is  made 
up  of  a  mob  bent  upon  diversion,  and  proceeding  in 
a  mood  of  rather  frolicsome  ferocity,  to  have  a 
thoroughly  good  time.  Lynchers  are  not  persons 
who  strive  from  day  to  day  toward  social  better 
ment.  Neither  are  they  always  drunken  ruffians. 
Oftentimes  they  are  ruflians  wholly  sober  in  so  far 
as  alcoholic  indulgence  is  concerned,  but  highly 
stimulated  by  an  opportunity  to  indulge  in  spec 
tacular  murder  when  there  is  no  fear  that  the  next 
grand  jury  will  return  murder  indictments  against 
them." 

This  is  the  situation  which  confronts  this  country. 
We  call  it  "The  Negro  problem,"  but  it  is  not.  The 
Negroes  did  not  come  to  this  country  as  voluntary  emi 
grants.  We  white  men  took  them  from  their  homes 
and  brought  them  here  to  be  our  slaves.  We  held  them 
in  slavery  for  more  than  two  centuries.  We  called 
them  "chattels,"  we  refused  them  all  the  rights  of  men 
and  did  our  best  to  make  them  brutes.  We  were  afraid 
to  let  them  learn  .and  we  kept  them  ignorant.  Their 
patience,  their  kindliness,  their  gentleness  made  all 
this  possible.  Had  they  been  less  patient,  slavery  would 
have  perished  at  the  outset. 

During  the  Civil  War  waged,  at  least  after  18C3,  to 
free  them,  they  showed  a  loyalty  to  their  masters  which 
is  without  a  parallel  in  history.  They  tilled  the  soil 
aud  raised  the  crops  which  fed  the  Southern  soldiers, 
who  were  lighting  to  keep  them  slaves.  To  their  pro 
tection  these  soldiers  confided  their  wives  and  children, 
and,  as  a  leading  Southern  gentleman  said  to  me,  "There 


15 

was  not  a  single  case  in  which  this  trust  was  betrayed," 
adding:  with  tears  in  his  voice,  "There  never  was  a 
better  race  than  the  Negroes."  This  shows  how.  far 
they  were  from  brutes.  There  were  in  the  Confederate 
States  nearly  four  million  slaves,  but,  as  Mr.  Rhodes 
says,  they  "made  no  move  to  rise."  In  the  graphic 
words  of  Henry  Grady,  "a  thousand  torches  would  have 
disbanded  the  Southern  army,  but  there  was  not  one." 

The  Negroes  had  no  voice  in  reconstruction,  nor  did 
they  propose  or  in  any  way  help  to  carry  the  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  which  secure  their  rights.  We 
forget  that  Andrew  Johnson  reconstructed  the  Southern 
States  on  a  white  basis,  and  that  legislatures  of 
white  men  chosen  by  white  votes  at  once  passed  laws 
which  virtually  re-established  slavery.  The  amendments 
were  adopted  to  save  the  country  from  such  a  calamity 
and  to  preserve  forever  the  results  of  the  war.  The  con 
temporary  records  abundantly  establish  these  propo 
sitions. 

If  in  the  first  few  years  the  Negroes  made  a  foolish 
use  of  their  newly  acquired  power,  they  acted  under 
white  leaders  who  led  them  wrong,  and  who  were  abla 
to  do  so,  because  the  men  to  whom  for  four  years  they 
had  shown  such  unexampled  loyalty  refused  to  lead  them 
right.  At  the  worst  they  acted  as  people  act  who  are 
ignorant  and  unfamiliar  with  the  business  of  the  gov 
ernment.  Who  had  kept  them  so  ignorant  and  so  unpre 
pared  to  exercise  their  rights  as  men?  Compare  them 
with  the  Bolsheviki,  or  even  with  the  French  in  1789, 
and  tell  me  that  they  suffer  by  the  comparison.  Com 
pare  their  worst  follies  with  the  deeds  of  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan,  or  the  atrocities  of  East  St.  Louis  and  Dyersburg, 
and  you  must  admit  that  we  white  men,  who  for  cen 
turies  have  been  civilized,  can  cast  no  stone  against 
them. 

What  is  there,  then,  in  the  Negro  which  justifies  or 
in  any  way  excuses  our  treatment  of  his  race?  We 


16 

brought  him  here  and  we  have  governed  him  ever  since. 
The  conditions  which  exist  are  of  our  own  creation.  We 
have  made  the  laws  under  which  he  lives ;  we  administer 
them.  Save  in  a  few  States  his  vote  is  negligible.  He 
has  no  representative  in  Congress  or  in  executive  office. 
He  simply  exists  as  God  made  him  and  as  we  have  de 
graded  him.  While  we  deny  these  millions  of  men  their 
rights  as  citizens,  we  demand  of  them  the  fulfilment  of 
all  the  obligations  of  citizens.  We  tax  their  property, 
and  in  this  supreme  crisis  of  the  world's  history  we 
demand  their  lives.  Our  conscription  law  recognizes 
no  distinction  of  color,  and  loj'ally  they  answer  their 
country's  call. 

They  do  not  hold  back  or  plot  against  the  government 
as  do  the  Sinn  Feiners  in  Ireland,  but  now  as  always  in 
our  history  they  have  been  as  ready  to  fight  for  their 
country  as  any  white  men.  Let  me  give  you  the  testi 
mony  of  their  Southern  white  neighbors.  It  is  from 
the  Charlotte  (North  Carolina)  Xcics  that  I  quote: — 

"It  is  the  marvel  of  the  South,  as  it  ought  to  be 
the  admiration  of  the  whole  United  States,  that 
when  the  colored  man  in  the  hard  stages  of  the  war, 
through  which  we  are  beginning  to  pass,  is  being 
put  to  the  test,  lie  is  measuring  up  to  the  full 
vaJuatiou  of  a  citizen  and  a  patriot.  There  has  been 
nothing  wanting  about  him.  In  every  activity  to 
which  the  mind  of  the  country  has  been  directed 
since  it  was  committed  by  its  great  President  to 
war,  the  Xegrp  has  fulfilled  his  obligation. 
There  has  not  only  been  a  total  absence  of  re 
sistance,  but  there  has  been,  rather,  a  hearty  re 
sponse  to  every  appeal  of  the  government,  a  thor- 
.  ougli  fitting-in  with  every  enterprise  that  had  of 
necessity  to  be  founded,  first  of  all,  upon  a  spirit 
of  patriotism.  These  multiplied  diversities  need 
not  be  enumerated.  What  the  colored  man  has  done 
is  made  all  the  more  glittering  by  what  he  has  re 
fused  to  do.  His  efforts  and  activities  speak  in 
terms  of  eloquence  that  become  the  despair  of  those 
who  seek  to  portray  them." 


17       \ 

And  to  these  words  I  add  from  the  Charleston  News 
and  Courier  the  following: — 

"The  Negroes  have  met  the  first  test  admirably. 
Both  the  drafted  men  and  the  Negro  leaders  of 
South  Carolina  have  earned  the  commendation  of 
them  which  is  being  freely  voiced  by  white  citizens 
everywhere.  The  leaders  have  realized,  as  it  was 
hoped  they  would,  that  in  a  way  their  race  is  on 
trial.  Evidently  they  are  determined  that  it  shall 
acquit  itself  well." 

Is  there  nothing  in  all  this  which  touches  the  con 
science  of  their  countrymen,  which  appeals  to  their  sense 
of  justice?  I  put  the  question  to  you :  Does  it  touch  your 
consciences? 

It  is  a  white  man's  problem  which  confronts  us.  The 
fault  is  in  us,  not  in  our  colored  neighbors.  It  is  our 
senseless  and  wicked  prejudice  against  our  fellow-men 
which  is  the  root  of  all  our  troubles.  The  question  is, 
how  can  we  make  the  white  people  of  this  country  recog 
nize  the  rights  which  they  themselves  have  given  to 
the  Negro,  how  can  we  induce  them  to  enforce  the  laws 
which  they  themselves  have  made  for  his  protection, 
how  persuade  them  to  do  him  simple  justice,  how  lead 
them  to  allow  him  equal  opportunity,  to  educate  the 
men  of  whose  ignorance  we  complain,  to  set  the  Negro 
an  example  of  civilization  and  not  of  worse  than  medi 
aeval  brutality, — in  a  word,  to  help  the  Negro  up  and 
not  to  beat  him  down.  We  can  blame  him  for  nothing, 
for  we  are  responsible  for  him  and  his  situation.  Can 
we  not  make  the  American  people  feel  how  cruel,  how 
wicked,  how  cowardly  is  their  treatment  of  men  who 
have  never  injured  them,  and  who  are  in  numbers  and 
resources  so  much  weaker?  This  is  the  question  on  the 
answer  to  which  the  future  of  this  country  in  no  small 
measure  depends.  For  the  crime  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  slavery  the  white  people  of  this  country 
paid  bitterly  by  the  sufferings,  losses  and  demoraliza- 


18 

lion  entailed  by  four  years  of  civil  war.  We  may  well 
heed  the  words  of  Edmund  Burke  and  "reflect  seriously 
on  the  possible  consequences  of  keeping  in  the  hearts 
of  your  community  a  bank  of  discontent,  every  hour 
accumulating,  upon  which  every  company  of  seditious 
men  may  draw  at  pleasure." 

When  the  Irish  troops  were  brought  to  London  by 
James  II.,  Macaulay  tells  us  how  they  were  regarded 
by  the  English : — 

"No  man  of  English  blood  then  regarded  the  abo 
riginal  Irish  as  his  countrymen.  They  did  not  be 
long  to  our  branch  of  the  great  human  family.  They 
were  distinguished  from  us  by  more  than  one  moral 
and  intellectual  peculiarity.  They  had  an  aspect 
of  their  own,  a  mother  tongue  of  their  own.  .  .  . 
They  were  therefore  foreigners;  and  of  all  foreign 
ers  they  were  the  most  hated  and  despised ;  the  most 
hated,  for  they  had  during  five  centuries  always 
l>een  our  enemies ;  the  most  despised,  for  they  were 
our  vanquished,  enslaved,  and  despoiled  enemies. 
.  .  .  The  Irish  were  almost  as  rude  as  the  sav 
ages  of  Labrador.  [The  Englishman]  was  a  free 
man;  the  Irish  were  the  hereditary  serfs  of  his  race. 
He  worshipped  God  after  a  pure  and  rational  fash 
ion;  the  Irish  were  sunk  in  idolatry  and  super 
stition  ;  .  .  .  and  lie  very  complacently  inferred 
that  he  was  naturally  a  being  of  a  higher  order  than 
the  Irishman,  .  .  .  who  were  generally  despised 
in  our  island  as  both  a  stupid  and  cowardly  people." 

Could  the  most  prejudiced  white  man  use  stronger 
terms  to  paint  the  inferiority  of  his  colored  neighbor? 
The  Irish  nation  to-day  is  extremely  prosperous,  yet 
the  memory  of  ancient  wrongs  coupled  with  the  desire 
for  greater  political  rights  makes  her  a  thorn  in  Eng 
land's  side,  when  England  needs  the  loyal  support  of 
all  her  citizens.  "England's  extremity  is  Ireland's  op 
portunity"  in  bitter  truth.  We  may  well  bear  this  ex 
ample  in  mind,  and  remember  how  small  a  fraction  of 
the  English  Empire  is  the  discontented  part  of  Ireland. 


19 

and  how  much  this  small  discontent  costs.  We  may  well 
ask  what  is  in  store  fcr  us.  If  it  cost  us  four  years 
of  civil  war  to  hold  some  three  or  four  millions  of  ig 
norant  Negroes  in  slavery,  what  may  it  not  cost  us  to 
trample  upon  the  rights  and  feelings  of  twelve  million 
freemen,  constantly  gaining  in  numbers  and  education, 
resources  and  self-respect!  These  are  questions  for  me 
and  for  you,  as  well  as  for  every  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  What  are  you  doing  to  answer  them? 

Men  say  that  it  is  for  the  Southern  States  to  deal 
with  the  situation,  and  that  we  must  not  interfere.  So 
in  1850  they  said  that  slavery  was  a  Southern  question 
and  that  none  but  Southern  men  could  understand  or 
deal  with  it.  The  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  living 
and  dead,  the  soldiers'  monuments  in  every  town,  the 
green  graves  in  Southern  and  Northern  land  alike,  bear 
witness  to  the  falsity  of  the  claim,  and  prove  that  the 
whole  nation  pays  for  the  fault  of  any  part.  It  was' 
the  blood  of  white  men  which  was  drawn  by  the  sword 
to  pay  for  the  blood  of  black  men  drawn  by  the  lash. 

You  may  say  that  this  is  a  rhetorical  answer.  Let  us 
turn  to  facts  and  figures.  The  Presidential  election  of 
1916  stirred  the  country  deeply,  and  we  may  take  the 
vote  cast  then  to  illustrate  my  point.  Louisiana,  Kansas 
and  Mississippi  are  each  entitled  to  8  representatives 
in  Congress,  and  must  have  therefore  nearly  equal  pop- 
iilations.  Ignoring  the  votes  of  the  small  parties,  the 
people  of  Kansas  cast  592,246  votes,  the  people  of  Loui 
siana  86,341  votes,  the  people  of  Mississippi  84,675. 
More  than  half  the  people  of  the  latter  State  are  colored, 
and  the  proportion  is  nearly  as  large  in  Louisiana. 
South  Carolina  with  7  representatives  cast  63,396  votes. 
Arkansas  with  the  same  representation  160,296,  while 
Connecticut  with  only  5  representatives  cast  206,300. 
About  9,000  votes  elected  a  representative  from  South 
Carolina.  A  few  more  than  10,000  chose  one  in  Lou 
isiana  and  Mississippi,  if  all  the  votes  were  cast  for  the 


20 

winning  candidates,  and  as  only  1,550  Republican  votes 
were  cast  in  South  Carolina,  4,253  in  Mississippi  and 
6,466  in  Louisiana,  they  do  not  seriously  affect  my  point. 
In  Kansas  about  74,030  persons  on  an  average  voted  for 
each  representative,  and  the  delegation  was  divided,  3 
Republicans  and  5  Democrats.  Similar  comparisons 
might  be  made  between  other  States  with  like  results. 

We  should  not  perhaps  be  so  greatly  concerned  if 
these  figures  merely  meant  a  lack  of  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  voters.  Their  significance  lies  in  the  fact  that 
there  was  in  the  Southern  States  no  conflict,  for  the  rea 
son  that  the  Negro  vote  was  suppressed.  The  Negroes 
are  counted  as  voters  in  determining  how  many  repre 
sentatives  the  State  shall  have,  but  are  not  allowed  to 
cast  their  own  votes,  so  that  each  Democrat  votes  for 
himself  and  for  one  or  more  Negroes,  and  consequently 
exercises  a  much  larger  influence  in  the  choice  of  Presi 
dent  and  Congress  than  the  voter  in  Wisconsin  or  Massa 
chusetts.  In  the  latter  States  the  voter  casts  one  ballot, 

in  the  Southern  States  he  casts  two  or  three  in  effect. 

- 

Remembering  how  small  is  the  majority  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  it  is  clear  that  the  policy  of  the  country 
on  all  important  questions  like  the  incidence  of  taxation, 
as  well  as  the  administration  .of  the  laws  by  which 
the  taxes  are  collected,  is  determined  by  men  who  cast 
votes  which  they  have  no  right  to  cast.  Men  say  that 
"the  South  is  in  the  saddle*'  and  the  political  situation 
which  that  phrase  describes  is  due  to  the  suppression  of 
the  Negro  vote.  If  the  Negroes  were  not  counted  in  the 
basis  of  representation,  or  if  they  were  allowed  to  vote 
freely,  this  situation  would  not  exist. 

I  am  not  concerned  to  consider  whether  the  govern 
ment  which  rests  on  a  South  thus  made  "solid"  is  good 
or  bad.  I  dwell  on  the  facts  to  make  you  see  that  the 
suppression  of  the  Negro  vote  does  concern  you.  It 
takes  away  a  large  iraction  of  your  voting  power,  and 
if  you  care  whether  the  administration  is  in  Republican 


21 

or  Democratic  hands,  or  if  you  think  it  possible  that 
cases  may  arise  when  issues  must  be  decided  which  are 
vital  to  the  country,  you  must  realize  that  a  situation  is 
dangerous  where  large-  bodies  of  citizens  can  cast  votes 
to  which  they  are  not  entitled, — when  one  man's  vote 
counts  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  another's. 

How  is  it  with  the  Southern  States  themselves?  Ask 
their  wise  men  whether  the  present  condition  places 
the  fittest  citizens  in  power,  ask  them  what  its  effect 
is  on  the  political  life  of  the  community,  and  they  will 
tell  you  that  it  is  bad.  Do  not  rely  on  the  statements 
of  men  in  office  who  owe  their  positions  to  the  fact 
that  the  Negroes  cannot  vote.  They  of  course  speak 
well  of  the  bridge  which  has  carried  them  safely  over. 
Ask  men  who  have  retired  and  are  disinterested  spec 
tators,  ask  the  men  of  affairs,  ask  the  students  of  history, 
and  if  they  answer  fairly  they  will  tell  you  that  where 
there  is  only  one  party  and  no  opposition  in  a  free  state, 
its  government  will  not  continue  to  be  good;  that  whore 
all  great  public  questions  are  decided  not  upon  their 
merits  but  according  to  a  single  prejudice,  they  cannot 
be  decided  wisely;  and  that  where  a  whole  community 
combines  to  perpetrate  or  tolerate  injustice  upon  any 
class  of  citizens  or  even  upon  a  single  man,  no  citizen's 
rights  are  safe,  for  every  man's  sense  of  justice  is 
blunted,  and  he  who  rides  to  power  on  one  prejudice  to 
day  may  be  the  victim  of  another  prejudice  to-morrow. 
The  attempt  to  punish  Dreyfus  for  a  crime  he  did  not 
commit,  supported  though  it  was  by  the  highest  officials 
and  the  strongest  influences  in  France,  nearly  overthrew 
the  republic.  We  may  take  warning  from  that  lesson. 
It  is  still  as  true  as  when  the  ancient  statesman  uttered 
it  that  "only  that  government  is  good  where  an  injury 
to  the  meanest  citizen  is  regarded  as  an  injury  to  the 
State." 

The  suppression  of  the  Negro  vote  injures  the  whole 
country,  and  we  must  all  recognize  this  and  insist  that 


22 

no  man  shall  cast  the  ballot  which  belongs  to  another, 
and  that  the  right  of  every  citizen  to  cast  his  own  vote 
shall  be  secure. 

Does  not  the  lack  of  education  concern  us?  Can  a 
country  have  a  better  asset  than  a  body  of  well-educated 
citizens?  Have  we  such  a  superfluity  of  labor,  is  our 
business  future  so  assured,  that  we  can  afford  to  throw 
away  competent  men?  Even  if  men  are  only  to  be  used 
as  soldiers,  they  need  education  to  be  good  soldiers. 
Without  it — 

(1)  They  cannot  sign  their  names. 

(2)  They  cannot  read  their  orders  posted  daily 
on  the  bulletin-board  in  camp. 

(3)  They  cannot  read  their  manual  of  arms. 

(4 )  They  cannot  read  their  letters  or  write  home. 

(5)  They  cannot  understand  the  signals  nor  fol 
low  the  signal  corps  in  time  of  battle. 

We  may  well  be  ashamed  to  think  that  out  of  the  many 
thousand  Negroes  who  are  enlisted  in  our  ranks  and 
ready  to  die  for  us  "many  cannot  even  write  a  letter  to 
their  anxious  mothers  at  home,  so  little  training  have 
they  had  in  the  schools  of  their  country." 

As  in  the  human  body  a  diseased  part  infects  the 
whole,  so  in  the  body  politic  an  ignorant  and  degraded 
Ixxly  of  citizens  is  a  menace  to  the  State.  Such  a  class 
is  bad  company  for  its  neighbors,  its  habitations  are 
breeding- pi  aces  for  pestilence  which  easily  spreads  from 
the  hovel  to  the  palace,  they  are  also  sources  of  moral 
infection  which  spreads  even  more  readily,  and  they 
offer  retreats  for  criminals  of  every  kind.  They  are  in 
fact  the  bases  for  hostile  raids  by  enemies  of  the 
community. 

The  Report  on  Negro  Education  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made  well  says: — 

"However  much  the  white  and  black  millions  may 
differ,  however  serious  may  be  the  problems  of  sani 
tation  and  education  developed  by  the  Negroes,  the 


23 

economic  future  of  the  South  depends  upon  the  ade 
quate  training  of  the  black  as  well  as  the  white 
workman  of  that  section.  The  fertile  soil,  the  mag 
nificent  forests,  the  extensive  mineral  resources,  and 
the  unharnessed  waterfalls  are  awaiting  the  trained 
mind  and  the  skilled  hand  of  both  the  white  man 
and  the  black  man." 

\ 

The  open  letter  by  the  Southern  University  Race  Com 
mission,  from  which  the  following  passage  is  quoted, 
has  been  called  "the  most  clear-cut  statement  in  favor 
of  the  education  of  the  Negroes  that  has  been  issued 
by  any  body  of  Southern  white  men."  It  says: — 

"The  solution  of  all  human  problems  ultimately 
rests  upon  rightly  directed  education.  In  its  last 
analysis  education  simply  means  bringing  forth  all 
the  native  capacities  of  the  individual  for  the  bene- 
lit  both  of  himself  and  of  society.  It  is  axiomatic 
that  a  developed  plant,  animal,  or  man  is  far  more 
valuable  to  society  than  an  undeveloped  one.  It  is 
likewise  olmous  that  ignorance  is  the  most  fruitful 
source  of  human  ills.  Furthermore  it  is  as  true 
in  a  social  as  in  a  physical  sense  that  a  chain  is  no 
stronger  than  its  weakest  link.  The  good  results 
thus  far  obtained,  as  shown  by  the  Negro's  progress 
within  recent  years,  prompt  the  commission  to  urge 
the  extension  of  his  educational  opportunities. 

"The  inadequate  provision  for  the  education  of 
the  Negro  is  more  than  an  injustice  to  him ;  it  is  an 
injury  to  the  white  man.  The  South  cannot  realize 
its  destiny  if  one-third  of  its  population's  unde 
veloped  and  inefficient.  For  our  common  welfare 
we  must  strive  to  cure  disease  wherever  we  find  it, 
strengthen  whatever  is  weak,  and  develop  all  that  is 
undeveloped.  The  initial  steps  for  increasing  the 
efficiency  and  usefulness  of  the  Negro  race  must 
necessarily  be  taken  in  the  schoolroom." 

There  is  no  answer  to  the  question  which  Carl  Schurz 
put  to  the  Southern  States, — 

"How  can  you  expect  to  succeed  in  competition  with 


24 

neighboring  communities  if  it  is  yonr  policy  to  keep 
your  laborers  ignorant  and  degraded  when  it  is  their 
policy  to  educate  and  elevate  theirs?" 

We  are  all  interested  in  the  prosperity  of  every  com 
munity  in  this  country.  Whatever  helps  one  helps  us 
all.  It  is  not — it  cannot  be — a  question  which  does  not 
concern  us  whether  education  is  given  or  denied  to  the 
Southern  Negroes. 

How  is  it  with  lynching?    Does  not  this  affect  us  all? 

In  the  first  place  these  horrors  occur  over  a  wide 
area.  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois  have  furnished  hideous 
examples  as  well  as  Georgia  and  Tennessee.  While 
such  crimes  as  these  go  unpunished  and  therefore  evi 
dently  approved  by  public  opinion,  how  can  we  denounce 
the  cruelties  of  Germany?.  How  do  you  suppose  such 
things  altoct  our  country's  reputation  with  really  civil 
ized  nations?  You  can  answer  this  question  for  your 
selves  if  you  will  remember  your  boyish  feelings  about 
the  North  American  Indians,  who  never  did  anything 
wore  cruel  than  these  white  Americans,  or  if  you  will 
imagine  hearing  that  such  things  had  been  done  in 
Turkey,  or  Russia,  or  by  Germans  in  Belgium  or  Poland. 
We  must  end  these  horrors  at  home  before  we  can  attack 
others  abroad. 

What  are  we  doing?  From  the  President  of  the 
United  States  down  and  by  all  great  leaders  of  public 
opinion  silence  is  maintained.  When  Prager  was  hung 
by  the  mob  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States 
at  once  brought  the  case  before  the  Cabinet,  the  whole 
influence  of  the  Administration  was  used  to  stir  the 
authorities  of  Illinois  to  action  and  they  responded. 
The  prosecution  failed  because  the  jurymen  did  not 
realize  what  they  were  doing,  but  it  was  made  clear  that 
the  Government  condemned  the  act.  When,  however, 
Dyersburg  and  Estill  Springs  stain  our  good  name  only 
a  few  voices  of  little  authority  are  raised  in  protest, 
and  no  attempt  is  made  to  punish  the  criminals.  Col- 


25 

Jege  festivals  come  and  go,  but  what  college  president, 
what  orator  at  Commencement,  takes  the  evil  of  lynch 
ing  as  his  subject.  The  universal  silence  disgraces  us 
more  than  the  acts  themselves.  The  lynchers  are  ruf 
fians  and  act  as  such,  but  the  silent  statesmen,  clergy 
men  and  scholars  are  the  best  men  in  the  country. 

If  the  etl'ect  on  the  country's  good  name  is  bad,  what 
think  you  is  the  effect  on  ourselves?  "What  education 
are  the  children  getting  whose  mothers  take  them  to 
witness  such  barbarities,  and  whose  fathers  hold  them 
up  that  their  view  may  be  uninterrupted?  These  children 
will  govern  this  country  in  a  few  years,  and  how  will 
they  govern  it?  A  community  so  brutalized  as  those  com 
munities  must  be  where  the  men  are  thus  tortured  is  a 
bad  neighbor.  We  do  not  let  our  little  children  torture 
animals,  for  we  know  that  the  practice  of  cruelty  de 
praves  those  who  are  guilty  of  it.  Why  are  we  silent 
when  whole  communities  are  thus  degraded?  If  they 
were  threatened  with  the  destruction,  of  property  by 
conflagration  or  flood,  we  should  rush  to  help  them. 
Barbarism  is  a  worse  foe  than  flood  or  fire.  It  is  a  pesti 
lence  whose  spread  is  not  recognized  until  it  breaks  out 
in  such  horrors  as  that  of  East  St.  Louis.  Should  we 
not  help  them  to  stay  its  ravages? 

Cannot  you  realize  that  your  own  house  is  on  fire? 
Attorney-General  Gregory  in  addressing  the  executive 
committee  of  the  American  Bar  Association  in  May 
said: — 

"We  must  set  our  faces  against  lawlessness  within 
our  borders.  Whatever  we  may  say  about  the 
causes  for  our  entering  this  war,  we  know  that  one 
of  the  principal  reasons  was  the  lawlessness  of  the 
German  nation — what  they,  have  done  in  Belgium, 
and  in  Northern  France,  and  what  we  have  reason 
to  know  they  would  do  elsewhere.  For  us  to  toler 
ate  lynching  is  to  do  the  same  thing  that  we  are 
condemning  in  the  Germans.  Lynch  law  is  the 
most  cowardly  of  crimes. 


26 

"Invariably  the  victim  is  unarmed,  while  the  men 
who  lynch  are  armed  and  large  in  numbers.  It  is 
a  deplorable  thing  under  any  circumstances,  but 
at  this  time  above  all  others  it  creates  an  ex 
tremely  dangerous  condition.  I  invite  your  help 
in  meeting  it. 

"The  two  excuses  usually  given  are  thai  there  are 
no  adequate  laws  and  that  the  laws  we  have  are 
not  properly  enforced.  The  people  of  this  country 
must  be  given  to  understand  that  we  have  means 
'of  protecting  those  in  the  field  and  those  at  home 
and  what  is  being  done  to  accomplish  that  result. 

"I  urge  you  through  such  machinery  as  you  see 
fit  to  adopt  to  assist  in  getting  before  the  people 
of  this  country  the  facts  that  laws  are  now  on  the 
statute  books  or  will  be  within  a  few  weeks  which 
will  reasonably  protect  the  interior  defences  of 
our  country,  that  an  honest,  adequate  and  earnest 
force  is  dealing  with  this  situation ;  and  that  unless 
the  hysteria  which  results  in  the  lynching  of  men 
is  checked  it  will  create  a  condition  of  lawlessness 
from  which  we  will  suffer  for  a  hundred  vears." 


He  had  in  mind  the  case  of  Prager,  but  what  he  said 
applies  with  even  greater  force  to  the  lynching  of  Ne 
groes,  and  it  is  absolutely  true.  Lawlessness  is  a  dis 
ease  which  spreads  rapidly  and  insidiously.  You  have 
not  forgotten  the  night-riders  of  Kentucky  who  terror 
ized  large  parts  of  the  State  and  paralyzed  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  law  for  a  considerable  time.  Their  efforts 
were  intended  to  prevent  their  neighbors  from  selling 
tobacco  at  pi-ices  and  to  a  customer  that  they  did  not 
approve, — in  a  word,  from  exercising  their  unquestion 
able  right  to  deal  as  they  would  with  their  own  prop 
erty.  You  must  remember  also  the  trials  at  Indian 
apolis  and  Los  Angeles  which  showed  that  the  leaders 
of  labor  unions  had  been  engaged  in  a  gigantic  con 
spiracy  to  promote  their  objects  by  blowing  up  factories, 
bridges,  buildings  and  newspaper  offices,  causing  enor 
mous  damage  to  property  and  more  terrible  danger  tD 


27 

human  life.  You  have  not  forgotten  the  case  of  Leo 
Frank  in  Georgia  taken  from  the  State  Prison  and 
lynched  though  he  had  been  duly  convicted  and  im 
prisoned  according  to  law.  The  Georgia  mob  blamed 
the  Governor  for  commuting  his  sentence  from  death 
to  imprisonment  and  therefore  killed  Frank.  The  lynch- 
ers  were  known  and  might  have  been  prosecuted,  but 
they  were  set  free,  while  the  Governor  who  commuted 
the  sentence  was  threatened  with  being  lynched  him 
self.  You  read  in  the  newspapers  every  little  while  that 
some  man  has  been  tarred  and  feathered  or  otherwise 
u bused  because  he  lias  not  bought  as  many  Liberty  Bonds 
as  some  of  his  neighbors  think  he  ought  to  have  bought. 
Criticism  of  the  Government  is  attended  to-day  with 
great  risks  even  in  the  courts,  where  extraordinary  sen 
tences  are  imposed  for  the  expression  of  unpopular 
opinions.  The  mob  is  waiting  in  all  these  cases  and, 
ignorant  of  the  facts,  asserts  its  own  standard  of  pa 
triotism  or  generosity,  any  deviation  from  which  is 
punished  by  death  without  trial. 

When  this  war  is  over  we  know  that  contests  between 
employer  and  employee  are  certain,  and  the  air  is  full 
of  wild  claims  made  by  the  Bolsheviki  and  their  con 
geners  all  over  the  world.  Such  periods  of  readjust 
ment  as  that  which  awaits  this  nation  are  always  dan 
gerous,  and  if  lynchers  go  unpunished  we  may  find  their 
methods  employed  against  the  capitalists  who  excite 
their  wrath,  the  courts  and  the  public  oflicers  who 
stand  in  the  way  of  what  the  mob  of  the  moment  de 
sires,  and  even  counsel  may  share  the  fate  of  their 
clients.  Lawyers  have  never  been  very  popular  since 
the  days  of  Jack  Cade,  and  many  ruffians  believe  with 
him  that  they  should  all  be  hanged.  When  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise  was  repealed,  Charles  Sunnier  warned 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  that  they  were  sowing 
dragon's  teeth  which  in  time  would  arise  as  armed 
men.  Four  years  of  civil  war  proved  him  a  true  prophet. 


28 

We  are  repeating  the  sowing,  and  the  crop  is  just  as 
sure.  Believe  me,  the  dangers  which  threaten  our  civil 
ization  from  lawlessness  are  greater  and  far  more  real 
than  any  which  Prussian  soldiers  can  inflict. 

I  have  come  half  across  the  continent  to  see  if  I 
cannot  make  you  realize  the  situation  and  strr  some  of 
you  at  least  to  action.  We  are  lawyers,  who  more  than 
any  other  men  are  bound  to  support  the  law.  We  under 
stand  what  lawlessness  means  and  what  its  dangers 
are.  The  men  in  the  communities  where  lynchings 
occur,  who  are  silent,  must  confess  either  that  they 
approve  the  crimes  or  are  too  cowardly  or  too  selfish 
to  make  a  public  protest.  The  ruffians  are  essentially 
weak — they  are  cowards,  or  they  would  not  treat  as  they 
do  their  helpless  victims.  Public  opinion,  the  strongest 
force  in  any  country,  once  aroused  and  expressed  would 
stop  these  outrages.  There  is  no  man  in  this  country, 
North  or  South,  in  Massachusetts  and  Wisconsin  as 
well  as  in  Louisiana  or  Mississippi,  who  is  not  bound 
to  help  rouse  this  public  opinion.  If  we  are  silent  we 
also  must  admit  that  we  are  cowardly  or  indifferent, 
or  that  we  approve.  Either  attitude  should  be  impos 
sible.  Let  us  speak  out  and  keep  speaking  out  until 
our  condemnation  is  felt  by  every  community,  and  the 
men  who  now  commit  these  hideous  barbarities  learn 
from  what  we  say  that  this  country  cannot  tolerate 
them.  The  enforcement  of  the  law  by  the  constituted 
authorities  would  frighten  the  perpetrators.  Are  they 
afraid  to  do  their  duty?  If  so,  the  community  must  give 
them  courage  or  elect  better  men.  If  they  dread  the 
loss  of  office,  make  them  realize  that  the  law-abiding 
citizens  have  more  votes  than  the  criminal  classes,  and 
that  they  will  not  forgive  neglect  of  duty. 

We  are  asking  our  Negro  fellow-citizens  to  give  their 
lives  to  their  country.  Such  arguments  as  I  have  quoted 
from  the  Vicksburg  Herald  might  well  have  made  them 
hesitate,  but  with  cheerful  readiness  and  loyalty  they 


29 

have  come  forward  at  our  call.  They  have  been  met 
with  jeers  from  many  quarters,  with  insults,  with  the 
suggestion  from  high  officers  that  they  should  not  ex- 
erciso  their  legal  rights  for  fear  of  exciting  unjust  race 
prejudice,  witli  proposals  that  they  should  serve  as  la 
borers  and  not  as  soldiers,  but  notwithstanding  all  these 
things  they  have  never  failed  or  faltered.  They  are  men 
with  feelings  and  ambitions  like  our  own.  Do  you  think 
they  do  not  realize  the  contrast  between  Houston  and 
East  St.  Louis?  Of  the  occurrences  at  the  latter  the 
Grand  Jury  after  investigation  said: — 

"East  St.  Louis  was  visited  by  one  of  the  worst 
race  riots  in  history,  a  siege  of  murder,  brutality, 
arson  and  other  crimes,  hitherto  of  such  a  loath 
some  character  as  to  challenge  belief.  After  hear 
ing  all  evidence  we  believe  the  riots — at  least  the 
occurrences  which  led  up  to  them — were  deliber 
ately  plotted." 

At  Houston  no  one  who  reads  the  evidence  can  doubt 
that  the  Negroes  were  stung  into  action  by  great  provo 
cation.  Here  arc  the  comparative  figures: — 

Houston  Eafi  St.  Louis 

17  white  persons  killed.  125  Negroes  killed. 

13  colored  soldiers  hanged.  10  colored   men   imprisoned  for 

41  colored     soldiers     imprisoned  fourteen  years.  % 

for  life.  4  white  men  imprisoned  four- 

4  colored  soldiers  imprisoned.  teen  to  fifteen  years, 

f)  colored    soldiers    under    sen-  5  white    men    imprisoned    five 

tence  of  death  ;  temporarily  years. 

reprieved  by  President.  11  white  men  imprisoned  under 

40  colored   soldiers   on   trial  for  one  year. 

life.  IS  white    men    fined.     One   col- 

White  policeman  who  caused  the  ored  man  still  on  trial  for 

riot  not  even  indicted.  life. 

No  white  army  officers  tried.  17  white  men  acquitted. 

(Military  law.)  (Civil   law.) 

How  does  the  contrast  affect  you?  How  must  it  affect 
our  colored  fellow-citizens? 


30 

We  owe  it  to  them — we  owe  it  to  ourselves — that 
while  they  are  giving  their  lives  abroad  to  make  the 
world  safe  for  democracy  we  should  do  our  part  to  make 
this  country  safe  for  their  kindred  at  home,  or,  to  quote 
a  better  phrase,  we  should  "make  America  safe  for 
Americans/' 

Upon  me,  upon  all  of  you,  rests  the  clear  duty  of 
helping  create  the  public  opinion  which  will  accomplish 
this  end.  The  time  has  been  when  in  Wisconsin  regard 
for  human  rights  and  determination  that  they  should 
be  respected  animated  this  people,  when  they  followed 
leaders  who  really  believed  in  the  principles  proclaimed 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  when  in  their  zeal 
they  even  defied  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
May  I  express  the  hope  that  this  faith  is  not  dead  and 
that  the  cause  which  I  am  advocating  may  find  here 
leaders  and  friends? 


National  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People 

70  FIFTH  AVENUE.  NEW  YORK 

Official  Organ  -  THE~CR^       -  Published  Monthly. 

July,  1019,  235  Branches^  41  States.    Membership  65,000. 

NATIONAL   OFFICERS 

President 
MOOBFIELD  STOREY 


u 


Vice-Presidents 

BISHOP  JOHN  HURST 

OSWALD  GARRISON  VILLARD 


EXECUTIVE  OFFICERS 
JOHN  R.  SHILLADY,  Secretary 


JAMES  WELDON  JOHNSON,  Field  Secretary 
WALTER  P.  WHITE,  Assistant  Secretary 

BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS 
Chairman,  MARY  WHITE  OVINOTON,  New  York 


Baltimore 
Bishop  Jjhn  Hurst 

Boston 

Joseph  Prince  Loud 
Moorfield  Storey 
Butler  R.  Wilson 

Buffalo 

Mary  B.  Talbert 

Chicago 

v«r  Jane  Addams 
*,  Dr.  C.  E.  Bentley 

Memphis 
R.  R.  Church 

New  Haven 
George  W.  Crawford 


York 

Rev   Hutchens  C.  Bishop 
Dr  *W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois 
Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes 
Dr.  V.  Morton  Jones 


New   York 

Florence  Kelley 
Paul  Kennaday 
John  E.  Milholland 
Capt.  Arthur  B.  Spingarn 
Major  J.  E.  Spingarn 
Charles  H.  Studin 
Oswald  Garrison  Villard 
Lillian  D.  Wald 
William  English  Walling 

Philadelphia 

Dr.  William  A.  Sinclair 

Springfield 

Rev.  G.  R.  Waller 

St.  Louis 

Hon.  Charles  Nagel 

Wilbcr force 

Col.  Chas.  Young,  U.  S.  A. 

Washington 

Prof  Geo.  William  Cook 
Archibald  H.  Grimke 
Charles  Edward  Russell 


14  DAY  USE 

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Kenewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall 


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GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERI 


